Travel with God

There was constant war between King Asa of Judah [in the south] and King Baasha of Israel [in the north]. King Baasha of Israel invaded Judah and fortified Ramah in order to prevent anyone from entering or leaving King Asa's territory in Judah. Asa responded by removing all the silver and gold that was left in the treasuries of the Temple of the LORD and the royal palace. He sent it with some of his officials to Ben-hadad son of Tabrimmon, son of Hezion, the king of Aram, who was ruling in Damascus, along with this message: "Let there be a treaty between you and me like the one between your father and my father. See, I am sending you a gift of silver and gold. Break your treaty with King Baasha of Israel so that he will leave me alone." (1 Kings 15:16-19 NLT)

Life is filled with ups and downs, rest and challenge, joy and sorrow.  The question is now whether these things will come our way.  The question is how we will respond to them as they come our way.  Asa was being attacked by his own Israelite family from the north.  His response was to try to build peace.

Ben-hadad agreed to King Asa's request and sent the commanders of his army to attack the towns of Israel. They conquered the towns of Ijon, Dan, Abel-beth-maacah, and all Kinnereth, and all the land of Naphtali. As soon as Baasha of Israel heard what was happening, he abandoned his project of fortifying Ramah and withdrew to Tirzah. (1 Kings 15:20-21 NLT)

This is much more in keeping with the wishes The LORD.  Not only is God a God of peace, but The LORD had specifically instructed them not to go to war with each other (See 1 Kings 12:22-24).  Asa is working to restore that peace.

Then King Asa sent an order throughout Judah, requiring that everyone, without exception, help to carry away the building stones and timbers that Baasha had been using to fortify Ramah. Asa used these materials to fortify the town of Geba in Benjamin and the town of Mizpah. (1 Kings 15:22 NLT)

Asa also set up the tribes of the south (Benjamin and Judah) to be able to protect themselves in the future.  Remember, King Asa in the south had something said about him that could not even be said about Solomon or David: “…Asa's heart remained completely faithful to the LORD throughout his life” (1 Kings 15:14 NLT).

How about you?  Can these words about Asa also be said about you?  Do you want them to be said about you?  Are you ready to be faithful to The LORD throughout the rest of your life?  Are you ready to travel with God?

It’s worth the trip when travelling with God.

We’re tracking the kings of the south this week and we’re up to Rehoboam’s son Abijam.
Abijam began to rule over Judah in the eighteenth year of Jeroboam's reign in Israel. He reigned in Jerusalem three years. His mother was Maacah, the daughter of Absalom. He committed the same sins as his father before him, and he was not faithful to the LORD his God, as his ancestor David had been. (1 Kings 15:1-3 NLT)
Abijam won’t be remembered.  His rule will only last three years.  The only thing that the Scripture writers felt were noteworthy about his life was that he continued to sin against God like his father.  Then, he was compared to his Great-Grandfather: David.
But for David's sake, the LORD his God allowed his descendants to continue ruling, shining like a lamp, and He gave Abijam a son to rule after him in Jerusalem. For David had done what was pleasing in the LORD's sight and had obeyed the LORD's commands throughout his life, except in the affair concerning Uriah the Hittite. (1 Kings 15:4-5 NLT)
The Scripture writers make it clear that a walk together with God can take wrong turns, encounter roadblocks, and get slowed down (or even stopped) by potholes.  But, when we stay on God’s path, the road is much smoother and we enjoy the benefits and blessings that come from walking together with God.
How about you?  Do you have times in your life when you encountered wrong turns, roadblocks, or potholes?  Do you have times when you were choosing to travel with God?  Do you see the difference?

Trips sometimes have potholes.

Rehoboam (the king of Judah, the south) and Jeroboam (the king of Israel, the north) had both strayed far from the path.  Neither of them were walking together with God.  The result was that the blessings given to their ancestors, Solomon and David, were no longer being given to them.  To make things worse, they turned against one another.

There was constant war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam. (1 Kings 14:30 NLT)

Life has potholes.  They are bumps in the road that are caused by previous stressors.  Sometimes they can be avoided.  Sometimes we see them too late so we hit them anyway.  Sometimes there are so many of them that they are unavoidable.  Potholes can slow down or even temporarily stop our progress.  Once I hit a pothole while driving in pouring down rain.  It sliced my rear tire across the width of the tire.  The car spun out.  I thank God that we didn’t hit anything and that no other car hit us.  I did, however, need to change the tire in the pouring rain.

When Rehoboam died, he was buried among his ancestors in the City of David. His mother was Naamah, an Ammonite woman. Then his son Abijam became the next king. (1 Kings 14:31 NLT)

We can learn from potholes that we have hit in the past.  Not only that, we can learn from potholes that our older brothers, sister, parents, or grandparents have hit.  We can drive more slowly, drive around them, or take a different path altogether.  This is how we gain wisdom from potholes already hit.  Sometimes we gain this wisdom.  Sometimes we do not.

Abijam began to rule over Judah in the eighteenth year of Jeroboam's reign in Israel. He reigned in Jerusalem three years. His mother was Maacah, the daughter of Absalom. He committed the same sins as his father before him, and he was not faithful to the LORD his God… (1 Kings 15:1-3 NLT)

How about you?  Have you ever hit potholes when you were riding a bike or driving?  Have you ever hit “potholes” in your walk together with God?  Have you learned from those experiences?  Have you learned from the experiences of others around you?  Have you grown in wisdom because of potholes in your life?

Trips sometimes have roadblocks.

Have you ever been on a trip that seems to go from bad to worse?  That’s what’s happening to Rehoboam on his “trip” as king of Judah (The Southern Kingdom).
In the fifth year of King Rehoboam's reign, King Shishak of Egypt came up and attacked Jerusalem. (1 Kings 14:25 NLT)
To be sure, some of Rehoboam’s problems are self-inflicted.  The people of Judah turned away from The LORD under the leadership of Rehoboam.  The problems they started facing as a result of false-god worship were self-inflicted.  This, however, takes things from bad to worse.  Now they are being attacked from the outside.  Egypt is closing in.
He ransacked the treasuries of the LORD's Temple and the royal palace; he stole everything, including all the gold shields Solomon had made. (1 Kings 14:26 NLT)
At Life Bridge, this is roughly equivalent to someone attacking and stealing the coffee bar.  How can we have worship services without a coffee bar?!?  Now, even true-God worship is being messed up for the people of Judah (South).  The glory days of king Solomon are definitely gone.
King Rehoboam later replaced them with bronze shields as substitutes, and he entrusted them to the care of the commanders of the guard who protected the entrance to the royal palace. Whenever the king went to the Temple of the LORD, the guards would also take the shields and then return them to the guardroom. (1 Kings 14:27-28 NLT)
How about you?  Have you ever encountered roadblocks on your trips?  Have you ever encountered roadblocks (inhibitors from the outside) in your walk with God?  Did these roadblocks succeed in stopping your worship, or did you find another way to continue walking together with God?

Trips sometimes have wrong turns.

Jeroboam reigned in Israel twenty-two years. When Jeroboam died, his son Nadab became the next king. (1 Kings 14:20 NLT)

This is the point in Bible-reading that many will give up.  That’s because it starts to get confusing.  The kingdom of Israel is now split into separate kingdoms in the north and the south.  The kings names are hard to pronounce.  To make things worse, they keep changing kings and jumping back and forth between the story in the north and the story in the south.

Meanwhile, Rehoboam son of Solomon was king in Judah. He was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city the LORD had chosen from among all the tribes of Israel as the place to honor His name... (1 Kings 14:21a NLT)

It’s worth the time reading, though, because much can be learned about how God worked with people in very tumultuous times.  When we go through difficult times, then, we can draw confidence that God will never leave us or forsake us as we choose to walk with Him.  If we choose not to walk with Him, though, God will let us go.

During Rehoboam's reign, the people of Judah did what was evil in the LORD's sight, provoking His anger with their sin, for it was even worse than that of their ancestors. For they also built for themselves pagan shrines and set up sacred pillars and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree. There were even male and female shrine prostitutes throughout the land. The people imitated the detestable practices of the pagan nations the LORD had driven from the land ahead of the Israelites. (1 Kings 14:21b-24 NLT)

How about you?  Have you ever been on a trip that took a “wrong turn”?  Have you ever taken a “wrong turn” in life?  What do you do when you recognize that it was a wrong turn?  Do you get back on track?  Do you get back with God?